


Amuse Me

by rinrin_obliviate



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Amusement Parks, F/M, Ferris Wheels, Fluff, Gen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, It's like 19k words of Albus and Scorpius pining for each other, Light Angst, M/M, Muggle Technology, Mutual Pining, Post-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Seriously tho, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Underage Kissing, but they're my disasters, they're both disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:15:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26173327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinrin_obliviate/pseuds/rinrin_obliviate
Summary: Albus didn’t really find amusement parks entertaining.Even with Scorpius Malfoy spending the entire day with him, Albus never really fancied the concept of crowded areas, roller coasters that would intentionally plummet you to death, or rigged carnival games that served nothing but stuffed toys and candy floss. Honestly, if him falling for his best mate was not going to be the death of him, this one was.He just wanted to survive the day.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 15
Kudos: 69
Collections: Scorbus Fest 2020





	Amuse Me

**Author's Note:**

> My second contribution to the Scorbus Fest 2020! At first, I had serious doubts about posting this fic; mainly because I might not do the story and everyone's character development justice. Then again, you'll never learn unless you take the risk. So here I am, taking that risk.
> 
> Thank you to @Sapphicfangirll, @Daughter_of_Song_DXXIX, and @fluffy__jeong for being my wonderful beta readers! Thank you for pushing me enough to actually post this fic. Grazie! Salamat! (I hope I typed thank you in Italian right 😂)
> 
> A big thanks to everyone, including those who hosted the fest! I hope you enjoy it.

Albus didn’t know how he landed himself at another incredulous situation.

Maybe it was because he was inherently part of the Potter family. Maybe he was forever destined for such kind of misfortune. Maybe trouble was simply a hereditary trait that he woefully inherited, or it was just his wondrous streak of timing and luck that he found himself estimating how long it would take for the ground to swallow him whole.

Either way, one thing was for certain: Albus would rather be anywhere than the front yard of the Potter household, facing a cramped up car in the early hours of dawn.

“I wanna be at the gunshot seat!” He heard his 16-year old older brother on the verge of throwing another tantrum. Honestly, everyone would, considering that not all of them were exactly morning persons. Well, maybe except Louis, who always had a grin plastered at his face; and Fred too, who always bursted out in feats of laughter even at the most inappropriate situations. 

But Louis nor Fred wasn’t here; it was just 6 of them, and Albus was starting to contemplate his life choices.

“It’s called a shotgun seat, James. And no, I’m not passing up another chance of you potentially sneaking one of your uncle's suspicious explosives in the car and causing another three-hour delay.”

“But mum—” 

“No buts. The last time you made your request you almost set your whole room on fire,” Ginny scolded. His brother's fooling tactics were failing him, and Albus preferred to watch everything go down from there.”

“Correction,” James raised his voice. His mum only raised an eyebrow, giving what Albus dubbed as the _watch your tone_ look. “It was actually the whole house.” Realizing his point, James scrunched up his eyebrows, only to muster another decisive grin afterward.

He felt someone nudge his side, followed by a faint whisper enough for Albus to die all over again. “Okay, now you’ll have to tell me the whole story.” 

He faked a groan, totally displaying what he thought was the normal, by the book's reaction on how _not_ to let your best friend know you have feelings for him. “It’s a bit long.” 

“We have the whole car ride,” Scorpius was looking at him expectantly, his eyes twinkling under the faint, enchanted lamp post. He had the most open, expressive eyes that Albus briefly thought how someone could wear their heart in their sleeves like it was the most natural practice on Earth.

“—you can’t just put me at the back of the car, mum!” James insisted. “I’m _sixteen_.”

It was typical of Albus to silently relish the hourly banter that involved James and him getting incinerated into flames—but not when he had to half-drag himself out of bed, with Scorpius by his side, going to a place Merlin-knows-where.

“Actually I can, and since you claim to be _sixteen_.” Ginny prolonged the last word, mocking James’s defensiveness. “You’re in charge of Lily.”

“What?” James spluttered, looking at his mum incredulously. He dropped a duffel bag he was about to load into the boot; purposefully or not, Albus was focused on trying to stay awake for the most of it. “But you said it yourself! The park is huge.”

She nodded, barely looking at James as she walked past him. His mum clearly wasn’t having any of his brother’s drama. “More of a reason why you should be an older brother.”

“That’s unfair!” James rolled his eyes, muttering something incoherent in his breath as he defeatedly picked up the bag and set it down with a bang. “How am I supposed to have _fun?”_

A slight smirk crossed Ginny’s face. “I’m sure you can find more ways to do that.”

“What’s next? I’ll let Lily sit in my lap for the remaining hours of the journey?” 

“If you have to, in case she throws up.” The subtle reminder had Albus recounting a very distinct memory: one that involved a barely bearable vacation without Scorpius, Lily throwing up all over the car, and the horrid stench that followed afterward.

“That’s just plain stupid,” James grumbled, causing Ginny to shoot him a pointed stare. “Why couldn’t Albus sit on Scorpius’s lap anyway? It’s not like they don’t do it all the bloody time.”

Albus felt his cheeks heat up. What made it more embarrassing was that Scorpius was just right _there,_ standing next to him, close enough to hear his brother’s snide but teasing remarks. If it wasn’t so dark, James would have found a new reason to tease Scorpius’s tomato-red face.

Before anyone could react, Ginny rushed to Scorpius’s side, partially blocking his view of James making absurd, joking faces in front of them. “You holding on there, Scorp?” His mum asked, popping the _p_ loud enough. Albus felt his whole system shut down, and he would gladly fling himself into the ground for the sweet temptation of sleep.

Yet, Scorpius was as giddy as ever, as if he hadn’t been dragged out of his five-hour sleep. He flashed a bright smile, giving Albus an excited grin before turning towards his mum, who now laid a comforting hand on his best friend’s shoulder. He allowed himself to relax, part of his anxiety slowly dissipating into the air. James’s side remarks had been ignored. Well, for the moment, at least.

“Definitely, Ms. Potter!” Scorpius was grinning ear-to-ear. “I can’t wait to go to-what was that place again? Coral Rock? Coral Island? I’m sure it’d be amazing as James made it sound. Lily said we’d see people dressed in glittering, huge costumes. She called them something else, but I forgot what it was. James told us that we’d get to ride bumper cars that smash into each other a thousand miles per hour, although that would have been a bit impossible, wouldn’t it?”

Ginny chuckled, with both her and Albus were thinking the same thing: they’ve never met anyone who was as excited as seeing mascots and exhilarating bumper cars. 

“It’s called Coral Cove, Scorpius, and I think your dad should very much know that. And no, bump cars are harmless. Not unless you do something incredibly stupid and James-like,” Ginny mused, patting him by the shoulder. “Seriously, don’t let them get to you. You know how James and Lily simply _love_ to exaggerate and make everything dramatic.” 

Albus groaned, rubbing his eyes in a vain attempt to rid himself of sleep. “Scorpius knows that mum. We see them every day at school.” 

If she had heard him, Ginny didn’t show. She heaved two bags in one hand, probably laced with an extension charm for everyone's needs. “Oh, and how many times do I have to tell you? Call me Ginny. We’re on a vacation for Merlin’s sake. No need for any civilized talk and posh confirmations. Got it?” 

He busied himself and caught a glance at Scorpius, who’s cheeks began to redden at his mum’s little comment. _He must have looked worse a while ago,_ Albus thought. An odd sense of warmth flooded his heart, tugging its strings slowly he could hardly feel it at all. Scorpius had always been the morning person between the two of them, yet it was obvious that neither of them had properly groomed themselves up before leaving. His white-blonde hair was crumpled up when it was usually combed. Tiny strands of baby hair were sticking around his head, and Albus suddenly had the urge to keep it back in place. Between the two of them, it was Scorpius who had the most tidy, tameable hair. His was wide and impossible, and Albus had given up on it long ago. 

Sleep was obvious in his watery eyes. He didn’t realize he had been staring for far too long (at least, for someone who’s supposed to be a best mate) until her mum had forcefully loaded one bag into his hands.

“You, little bun,” Ginny mused, ruffling Albus’s messy, black hair. “Snap out of your daydreams, will you? And help us load that into the boot,” she said playfully.

“I am not daydreaming, mum. I’m sleepy.” Albus countered while stifling a yawn. His mum wore a knowing, mischievous grin on her face, having won another argument. “Why do we need half of these bags, anyway? It’s not like we’re out overnight.”

“Your father's a light packer, I’m not. Besides, most of them are for our road trips. You know, in case James tries to set off another bomb at the car.” Leaving him two loads and a mischievous smile, his mum strutted away from them as she shouted another reminder to Harry.

Having no choice, Albus swung the large, heavy bag against his shoulder before proceeding to the car. 

“Your mum _is_ coolest!” Scorpius said, his excitement enough not to make Albus topple over to the ground and fall asleep. 

“She banned sweets for a year, Scor.”

He didn’t need to glance to know that Scorpius had cringed, remembering the dull moments of their first year when all the Potters had been placed on sugar ban.

“You’re right,” Scorpius eventually agreed. “My mom is the coolest. But _still!_ Imagine, we’re going to a theme—”

“Boys!” A voice rang throughout the gardens. He glanced up, only to find his dad blocking the front door as he carried what must have been one of the last duffel bags on his shoulder. He scanned the lot in front of him, giving each of them a nod before he finally landed his gaze on Albus and flashed him a brief smile.

His lips twitched into what must have looked like a grimace instead of a returned smile. Albus tried to support whatever his dad was into. The time-turner escapade hadn’t completely fixed things between them, but it surprised him how the series of events became a starting point to mend their father-son relationship. Yes, they were two different people, separated by time and circumstances and generations, but Albus was his own person. Somehow, both had begun to accept that. Well, _almost._

He didn’t know how it was a good idea for a group of wizards to go to a secluded, muggle _theme park_ in the middle of the summer. The absurd, relatively bold ideas were something he should have been used to by now. But mostly, Albus had no idea what was going on in everyone’s mind when they had decided to plan the one-day trip spontaneously, just in time for Scorpius to spend his first vacation with them. 

  


So yeah, how he was going to last the whole day was something he didn’t know. He could barely survive another second with his eyes open.

“This is our last bag to pack,” Harry announced, loud enough for most of them to hear. “You guys head towards the car for a headcount.”

As he saw his dad walk towards the car, he felt Scorpius lean over his side.

“You guys have a headcount?” he mumbled as if anyone could hear them. James was walking disgruntledly pestering Ginny about bringing his collection of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes Uncle Ron had bought him, while his dad was too absorbed with loading the loot and thinking of anything else they might have forgotten.

“Sort of. You can’t believe how many times James and Lils can disappear in less than a second,” Albus replied with a sniff, his nose starting to get a little too stuffy from the cold, morning breeze that was saying hello to them. The sky was still a dark shade of blue and violet, the stars disappearing slowly as they had appeared yesterday. A few hours and the sun was going to rise, and he hoped they’d reach the park by then.

Scorpius’s full attention was now on Albus. He was grinning exuberantly as if he had spotted something embarrassing. “You’re stuffy.”

Albus gave him a pointed stare. “I’m not. It’s just cold.”

“Still,” he giggled. “You’re already in a bundle of scarves and jackets, but 5 minutes out here and you’re already stuffy.”

“I am _not_.” Albus relented before giving a rather clumsy sneeze. “To be fair, it’s been ten minutes since then.”

Instead of answering with another banter, Scorpius continued to chuckle, hastily reaching down his pockets. Albus frowned, curious as to what his best friend was trying to search for at this time of the day...until Scorpius held something familiar in front of a very confused Albus.

“You bought tissues?” Albus asked. Scorpius simply hummed for himself, taking it as a yes. “I thought you said you preferred handkerchiefs.”

“Oh, they’re not for me,” Scorpius said, stating the obvious. “They’re for you, especially because your nose gets so sensitive at the slightest change of weather.”

Okay, to be fair, Scorpius had _no_ right to make his heart beat erratically against his chest and be so oblivious about it. “So you’re telling me I’m allergic to the weather? Can you even prove that one?” Albus started to walk towards the car, hoping that Scorpius was following suit so he couldn’t see the light smile that was tugging his lips.

“Winter, first year. It was the week before Christmas vacations and we decided to go outside until you realized that you _actually_ forgot to bring your own scarf. On a winter day. Imagine that. So now we had to walk side by side together and share a single scarf, and till then you never stopped shivering. Second-year and I had to babysit someone my own age just because you were running on a cold and acting like your soul is being ripped out of you. Also, have I mentioned third year when you woke me up in the middle of the night because you ran out of _tissues_ -”

“Okay, okay, stop.” Memories of late-night conversations and hot chocolates flooded his mind. “You made your point.”

By then Scorpius’s rambling was long enough for them to reach the car. Albus twisted its hinge, lazily swinging the door open for both of them.

He flicked his head towards the car seat. “You go.”

“No, you go first. You’re the one who opened the door.”

“That wasn’t on purpose.” Albus lied, trying to sound as casual as he could.

“But you actually—”

To his surprise, James came swooping right at them. Scorpius staggered for a bit, his eyes turning wide as he saw a flash of red bolt right in between them. Before they knew it, his brother was hugging himself comfortably on the passenger seat.

“ _I_ go first, so that you two would finally stop bickering against each other,” James mumbled, flashing what must have been his tenth smirk for the day. Ducking instead, he begrudgingly entered the car as he felt Scorpius follow suit. 

Just then, his dad’s head popped up from the window, his slightly enamored grin quickly replaced by a frown.

“Where’s Lily?” Harry’s gaze instantly landed on James, who was making weird clicking sounds with his tongue. “James, where’s your sister?”

“I don’t know,” James mused, not returning Harry’s gaze. “Why don’t you ask Al?”

He sighed, staring pointedly at his brother. “Because you’re the one that’s been with her since the past—”

Suddenly, a shrill, loud voice erupted from the gardens, sending a flock of birds that were resting on their porch flying up. Lily crashed down from the opposite side of the car.

“Lils,” Albus grunted, merely annoyed than surprised by her sister’s demeanor. “You didn’t have to shout.”

Lily directed her gaze towards James, blatantly ignoring Albus’s complaints. She was clearly seeking attention, and James was having none of it. When his older brother didn’t budge, Lily planted her full weight on him, forcefully shoving him towards the center of the car. Albus briefly caught Harry smirking before fleeing away, probably saving himself from witnessing another exchange of banter from the two.

“Wha?” James stirred, obviously irritated by Lily’s course of action. “I’m supposed to get the window’s seat!”

Lily stuck out her tongue, earning a fiery glance from his brother. “That’s what you get for trying to switch my shampoo to yellow hair dye the other day.” 

“But yellow looks good on you,” James replied, his voice strained from trying to conceal his laughter. 

“Oh sod off!” She nudged James with her elbow. “You know that it’s my least favorite color.”

“Right,” he snickered in reply. “Just because you messed up a hair-raising potion so bad in second year that you had to lose your red hair for almost a week-”

To Albus’s relief, James’s story was interrupted by their mum, who swung the door open so fast it was on the verge to fall off. She propped herself comfortably on the gunshot seat with a noticeable grin. Leaning back, she swung a shoulder bag on her side.

“Mum,” James called out, leaving his previous point hanging through the air. “Lily won’t let me get the window seat.”

Ginny barely turned her head. “Oh yeah?” she asked with vague interest and curiosity.

“To be fair, I battled my way for this spot.”

“I was _first_! She was playing rough.” James glared at Lily, who refused to back down and gave him an equally hard glare. What turned out as a fight now became an unspoken staring contest, and Scorpius was eying them with such interest.

James tried out a new tactic. “But Lily’s the shortest! Short people should definitely stay in the middle. The eldest gets to sit at the window seat.” 

“Oh really?” Lily challenged. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s just the rule, Lils,” James quipped as if she was explaining to a four-year-old. “So when the car’s hatch gets unlocked and it suddenly flings itself open as we drive you wouldn’t be the one tumbling along the highway and flinging yourself headfirst into the pavement.” 

Lily stared at his brother incredulously. “Why on earth would that happen?”

“Probably because of James.” His voice was as dry and dead as possible. Scorpius stifled a chuckle, and he swore he saw a smile crept upon his mum's face. 

“That rule’s stupid.” Lily raised her head indignantly as if she was gaining the upper hand. “Look at Albus. He’s not sitting by the window’s seat.” 

“That’s because our dear Scorpius here is naturally tall,” James cocked his head to the side. “And Albus has the height of a chipmunk.”

Albus’s head whipped faster than he thought he could, giving his brother a look as if he was about to murder him on the spot. “Your point being?”

James raised an eyebrow, raising both of his hands as an act of surrender. “ _I_ should be the one at the window seat.”

Lily was about to open her mouth when Harry entered the car and sat at the driver’s seat. He rested his hand against the wheel, adjusting his grip as preparation for the two-hour journey. Overhearing the unrelenting banter between James and Lily, his mum and dad shared a knowing look.

“Why don’t you take turns?” His dad addressed James. The engine revved, and suddenly they were driving past the house and on to the road. “Lulu gets to sit there on the way while you take the seat all the way home.”

“But Lily gets to sleep comfortably throughout the journey and I’m stuck here!”

“We’ll be passing a suburban town on the way home, which means that there’s going to mild traffic. That way you get to have the window seat for yourself longer than expected.” Ginny shrugged. “It seems fair.”

James sat up, digging deep through one of his jacket pockets. He fished out a phone his dad had insisted everyone bring to the park. Ginny added that it was for communication purposes, especially in case of emergency. Well, that and they couldn’t go around shooting red sparks with a wand in a muggle zone.

“You shouldn’t use your phone as early as now, you know,” Harry warned. “You’ll be wasting its battery life.”

A faint, white light illuminated the car, casting visible shadows on everyone. Meanwhile, Scorpius was scrutinizing James’s phone the way he did when he held a Pygmy Puff for the first time. 

“I still can’t thank your parents enough for letting me borrow a valuable muggle device.” Scorpius fiddled with the hem of his drawstring bag, his hands itching enough to take hold of his own.

“Just say the word phone, Scorpius,” Albus insisted, laughing at his friend’s obliviousness. “You’re starting to sound like my grandpa. Are you sure you already have an idea of how to work it out?”

Before Scorpius could even reply, James’s mouth shot open, a visible frown plastered on his face. Unsurprisingly, his brother never ran out of highly inadvisable reasoning methods. “Why can’t we just levitate the car and fly from there anyway then? We could’ve saved so much time.”

“—And I would have gotten my precious beauty sleep,” Lily countered.

Despite the sudden change of topic, Albus had to agree. With all simpleness, they could’ve easily arrived at the theme park by means of side-along apparition. A Floo network would work, but it wasn’t exactly common for muggle amusement park to have chimneys that accommodated most wizards and witches. 

“Highly inadvisable,” Ginny deadpanned, wearing an unamused expression in her face. “The last time your father drove a flying car he almost ran straight on a moving train, he ungracefully crashed into the Whomping Willow and suffered extreme second-hand embarrassment as he saw Ron endure a howler from mum.”

James snickered, mildly impressed yet unsurprised at the mention of one of his dad’s infamous youth escapades. He was probably starting to think of ways on how to beat his dad’s school record at the age of _sixteen_ , and Albus genuinely feared for that day. Lily sprung up to her seat, nagging Ginny and pulling her mum’s favorite scarf as she insisted for a full-on, dramatically entailed story. 

“In my defense, it was Ron who actually _drove_ the car,” Harry replied, feigning a look of surprise as if it was the largest insult to the-boy-who-lived.

Ginny continued, ignoring Harry’s inexplicable warning to stop. “Did I mention that they were a fair number of muggles? Snape was so pissed he suggested expelling them.”

Albus and Scorpius shared a look, smiling amongst themselves as they recounted an unspoken memory. Snape was, as Scorpius described him, had a _‘fine sense of intimidation._ ’ His best friend came back changed to what must have felt like the shortest, fastest two minutes of his life—traumatized but fearless. He was more open, bold, and unseemingly daring for a Slytherin—almost reaching a point where he would blurt out things to Albus that would randomly send more than caterpillars into his stomach. 

“That was one of the scariest moments of my life,” Harry said, snapping Albus out of his thoughts. He saw a look of mock horror lace his face. “And believe me when I say that I had witnessed an unfair amount of _scary_ in my life.”

 _Was he joking?_ Albus couldn’t figure it out. Was this similar to his dad’s so-called unexplainable fear of pigeons? He thought his dad was joking back then--surely the boy who lived cannot actually be afraid of something as shallow as harmless pecky birds whose worst thing it did was spray poop all over your head. That is, until Lily had decidedly practiced a seemingly harmless Engorgement charm at their garden with a chosen pigeon as a target. After that, well, the rest was history (but it certainly included his flustered dad almost peeing himself and Floo-calling Ginny in the middle of the day).

That’s when he had learned that his dad didn’t actually fear pigeons; he just extremely disliked them. The reasons behind the unexplainable fear were still one of the mysteries of the universe Albus had yet to solve.

“I can agree to that,” Scorpius whispered. “Snape is really scary.”

“I think it’s in his personality,” Albus mumbled back. “Seriously, why he named me after that professor is a wonder.”

Scorpius turned his head so that he was facing Albus. “I’m sure your dad has his reasons.”

When Scorpius replied no further, Albus spared a glance at his dad, whom he caught looking at him at the rearview mirror. A fond expression crossed his face, one that his dad always seemed to wear whenever he woke up in the morning to cook breakfast, or do something as simple as try to knit a jumper (only to get irritated by the few minutes because his wandwork was doing a better job than him). 

It didn’t take Albus long enough to figure out why his dad was smiling; the memory of jumping off the Hogwarts Express was still vivid to him that he couldn’t help but return his father’s smile. 

It was when he figured that his dad had probably spent his teenage years doing loud, extraordinary forms of mischiefs and recklessness—ones that weren’t found in updated versions of History of Magic or biographies, but kept alive l in word and memory. It took Albus a year or two to finally catch up; nevertheless, he knew he couldn’t be the only one to blame. 

After a series of interrogations and nagging from a very ecstatic, grumpy Lily, the family fell into a comfortable silence. He could hear Ginny mumble something about roadwork and delays with Harry, who simply nodded and muttered a few hums of approval occasionally. James’s head was bobbing back and forth as he slipped into a restless sleep while Lily leaned against the window, her body a drop-dead corpse.

He glanced at Scorpius, who was peeking from the window with wide eyes and an ecstatic smile. They were passing through a field with small and big houses situated in different areas. Every so often a farmer’s hat would pop throughout the enormity of the grassland—a sign that the world was already waking up from its dreamless sleep. 

“Open the window,” Albus leaned into Scorpius, lowering his voice into a whisper he swore the back of his friend’s hair stood up. 

Scorpius gave a curious gaze. “Why?”

“You’ll see.”

Scorpius gave the window a faint tap, followed by a series of indistinct knocks as if he was calling someone out from the door. After a few more tries (with Albus trying his hardest not to laugh), Scorpius finally gave up and looked at him helplessly. “How do I do this?”

Albus tried his hardest to give him a sympathetic smile. “Here.” he pointed at the armrest. “Just press the button.”

Scorpius frowned, followed by a light “ _oh_.” Albus interjected, putting it upon himself to save his best friend the misery of opening the window. He extended his arm towards the armrest, which meant that his arm was lightly pressing on to Scorpius’s chest as it grazed his lap. 

“I was supposed to do that,” Scorpius muttered afterward, his sudden shift of mood almost unrecognizable.

“I promise you’ll get to close it,” he nudged his head towards the direction of the streetlights. “Look.”

Scorpius gaped at the sight of the beautiful scenery that engulfed their surroundings. The light breeze billowed roughly against his skin. Tall, towering street lamps cast a faint, artificial glow that illuminated the road, as well as long endless fields that stretched out towards the sky. 

The wind was ruffling Scorpius’s hair. His hair would usually cover his head and block his sight, but now it seemed like it was swooping past his face in a way he never expected. Whereas Albus was squinting because of the dust and gravel, the boy beside him didn’t seem to care. He was carefree and young, with the faint glow of street lights dancing in his eyes and invincibility in his heart.

Scorpius faced Albus, still wearing that same smile. “It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Albus agreed, acting casual despite the fact that he was staring at a completely different view. 

Scorpius drew a huge breath, facing the scenery once again. 

“I feel alive.” 

_Alive._ Sometimes Albus wondered about his best friend’s peculiar use of vocabulary. Not that the alive was an uncommon word. He repeated it in his head over and over again, to the point where it almost made no sense to him, like a word isn’t a word anymore but a series of jumbled letters mixed together. Then again, Scorpius always had the right words for everything. 

He wondered how it felt to feel alive. 

Maybe it was the breeze that was swooping past them, but it was then that Albus felt his eyelids droop down. The brief surge of excitement and embarrassment from a while ago had vanished, leaving a very sleepy, and possibly grumpy version of himself. He instinctively leaned on something his head could find…

...which didn’t turn out to be a _something_ but a _someone._

If Scorpius went tense, he never showed it. Or maybe he was just too sleepy enough to have second thoughts. Surely, it’s something normal best mates do. 

Scorpius leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice. “Let me guess, you push the button to open the windows, so that means you do the opposite for you to close them.”

Albus gave a faint nod, his eyes already closed. “Just pull it,” he muttered incoherently.

He felt Scorpius shift ever so slightly as if he was careful not to let Albus’s head fall off. He barely heard a light thud as the car window finally closed off. Finally, Scorpius rested his cheek against his head as Albus nuzzled comfortably into him as both fell into a dreamless sleep.

◢✥◣

“We’re here.”

Harry skidded into the parking lot, picking a spot closer to the entrance gate and food stalls. Ginny was rambling something about how _not_ to get themselves into a life-or-death situation (which was very unlikely for a theme park, but anything was possible with a mixture of the Potter-Weasley genes) when Albus tore his head away from Scorpius’s shoulder. He had awoken to Lily squealing about the 1000 foot drop ride for an hour now, and once his siblings were awake, there was nothing that could stop them from wreaking havoc. 

The whole car ride has surprisingly been a breeze. He had leaned on Scorpius throughout the journey to which he wordlessly agreed to. A lot of observing and bickering and laughter had happened since then, with Scorpius pointing out ancient, rusty houses as they passed through old towns and more grassy fields. Sometimes it was Albus who did the talking, especially when it comes to pointing out famous sub-urban attractions.

“Albus,” Ginny called out. You sure you’ve got what you need?”

“I don’t.” he shrugged nonchalantly. “But Scorpius does, so I’ll be fine.” 

His gaze landed to his side, only to find Scorpius attempting to pry open the door with great difficulty.

“It’s locked,” Albus said. “You turn that thing to your right before you try to murder our door.”

Scorpius wordlessly gave him a look of playful offense; nevertheless, he followed the direction of Albus’s gaze before turning the lock open successfully. The two got out of the car with a thud, with Scorpius beaming excitedly even as he struggled to adjust his cramped legs that he wasn’t able to stretch for the past three hours. 

Lily could barely keep her feet off the ground as soon as everyone got out of the car. James was leaning against the car door, and even if he tried to hide it, Albus could make out a mildly impressed reaction on his face. As he glanced up and scanned the new area, Albus could see why everyone was beaming excitedly.

Vibrant, pastel colors were everywhere, showering too much energy and hope that it was almost infectious. Various rides were poking around borders, each looking exhilarating and frightening at the same time. One of them looked like a roulette wheel. That is, if you could find a gigantic one that stretched a thousand feet into the air.

Scorpius shook his shoulder vigorously, his eyes glinting with excitement. “This is going to be amazing! I literally don’t know which ride to pick first.”

His voice must have revealed too much of his enthusiasm as he’d earn curious and amused glances from each of them. It was obvious that he was just as excited as Lily, who went over to them and nudged him sideways. “I’ve heard that there’s this really romantic ride that lets you find your own soulmate. I really don’t know how it works, but I hope it makes me find my Prince Eric!”

“You watch too much Disney, Lulu,” Ginny called out. The past three nights that Scorpius had stayed over the Potter household had been full of late-night popcorn sessions and a Disney marathon. It became a competition of who gets to stay awake the longest, which was forcibly banned by Day two (something that had to do with 99% of them not being able to function throughout the day). 

James made a little coo as Albus leaned into Scorpius’s ear. “Didn’t Ariel fail to marry Prince Eric and in the process ended up being a sad, lonely seafoam?”

“Yeah, let’s not tell her that,” Scorpius deadpanned, soft enough for Lily not to hear. “Let’s just stick to the happy ending. Who knows, maybe you should try it out too. You might find some really gorgeous moms out there.”

Albus nudged him hard. “I was waiting for that day to come, and it’s finally here. I repeat, I do _not_ have a thing for older women.” Heck, he might not even have a thing for women at all.

Both of them had rambled on nonsensical stuff on the way to the ticket lane. James and Lily were placing bets on who gets to withhold a scream while plunging down a rollercoaster. Harry and Ginny just wanted peace. 

Rows of chitter-chatter had gone on that neither had noticed how fast the ticketing lane went on. Before they knew it, they found themselves standing inside a very huge park, a brightly colored paper wristband clasped around their wrist. 

His dad walked towards them. “Lily can barely contain herself. James is estimating how many rides he could rattle by the end of the day.” 

Albus gave a sly smirk. “I can see that. The whole car ride was hardly bearable.”

“With five spilled drinks, two trips to the gas station and your siblings fighting over a burger, I’d say it was a miracle.”

“Wait ‘till we bring the entire Weasley clan here,” Albus mused. “Wait, actually no. I don’t want to give you any further ideas.”

Harry laughed, ruffling Albus’s already messy hair in the process. Seeing the three of them talking to each other, Ginny headed towards them, slinging the strap of her bag along her shoulder as the light wind swept past her hair.

“I entrust my complete faith in you for this day,” she said to Scorpius. “Knock some sense into my son and help him interact with people, will you?”

“Hey! I went grocery shopping with you last week,” Albus countered. His mum only mustered a dry look. 

“Don’t worry! Albus is here to teach me more about the ways and means of Muggles. For example, like how this makeshift bracelet functions in an amusement park. Is it like some sort of identification?”

“This is for unlimited rides,” Albus explained to a very curious Scorpius, who had been fiddling with his newfound paper bracelet for a minute longer. Behind him, he could hear Ginny whisper about how Draco was in for a surprise if his son turned out to be her dad. “I think it means you get to ride all the rides you want for the whole day.”

“It is?” Scorpius chirped. “I can’t wait to try everything!”

“Everything?” Albus eyed him warily. It was great to see Scorpius in a great mood, his heart just wasn’t into the notion of plunging down hundreds of feet on a muggle made ride.

“Yup.” Scorpius nodded too enthusiastically. 

“Don’t pressure lil bro into venturing out, Scorp!” James called out. “I’m pretty sure he'd prefer to ride other things.”

A loud cackle, followed by his mum and dad shouting something he chose to ignore. James and Lily strode out of the view while Ginny and Harry rounded along a corner. All of a sudden they were alone, side-by-side in the middle of a busy crowd.

“So…” Albus trailed off, a sly grin slowly forming in his face. No matter how full-packed and cramped the theme park was, they were going to spend the majority of their time without James. They had the whole day for themselves, and a whole day with Scorpius was something he’d definitely enjoy. “What do we do first?”

“Oh! Lily mentioned something about a carousel. I know, it kind of sounds funny, but didn’t she say that it contained real horses that spin around in circles? I’m sure it’ll be fun as long as we skip the part where we almost get toppled over to the ground.”

As if on cue, Scorpius’s stomach gave a light grumble. Albus pointed accusingly at his stomach. “...Or we could do something about that.”

“A carousel seems more exciting.”

“Scorpius,” Albus fought off a chuckle as his best friend rambled. The two were walking side by side now, letting their feet take them somewhere else. “I have no idea what Lily said, but a carousel is one of the least troublesome rides that you have to worry about in a theme park.”

“Well, we’re in for a surprise, aren’t we?” 

“You’re starting to sound like my sister,” he mumbled. “Look, we’ll get to try whatever ride you want, but first we have to feed that stomach of yours.”

“Fine,” Scorpius grumbled as he let Albus drag him to a large, noticeable ice cream cart nearing the entrance.

◢✥◣

Their first ride just happened to be a ghost train. 

He didn’t know why he had agreed to it, but it might have to do something with a lot of bribery from Scorpius. He said something about mint chocolate ice cream and being Malfoy the Unanxious, and in a blink of an eye that was where Albus found himself.

He might as well convince Scorpius to confront the Trolley Witch and jump off that cursed train at this point. 

“This is worse than the Trolley Witch!”

It was utterly chaotic. A group of teenagers was shrieking behind them. Toddlers were throwing tantrums and screaming for their mommies and daddies, and Scorpius, well, he was a definition of a mess. Both of them were.

“Seriously, it’s just light and shadow effects—”

His remarks were interrupted by an ear-piercing scream that emanated throughout the studio. Scorpius pressed himself further behind Albus’s back and into the corner of their compartment. He found the slightly terrified version of his best friend a bit endearing, really. How his hands were gripping his poor jacket tightly as he unknowingly dug his fingers against his shoulder, or how Scorpius’s hair brushed lightly on his neck, tickling him at the slightest touch. He was moving too much, even when both of them were stuck in the same seatbelt.

He just wished Scorpius would stop shrieking directly in front of his ear.

“Will you stop murdering my shirt?” Albus turned, mildly amused and exasperated at Scorpius’s screaming. The steam engines were too loud, along with the blaring intense music and sirens overpowering them. It was all too clamorous he couldn’t even hear his own voice. “And possibly my eardrums too, thank you.”

“Not when we’re about to get murdered here, Albus!” he replied in an equally restrained voice, only 100x higher.

“It’s a ghost train.” He glanced at Scorpius, who still refused to pry his hands away from him. “It’s supposed to give you quite the scare, like movies.”

“Well right now they’re doing a _fantastic_ job at that.” Scorpius barely tore away his face from Albus’s jacket, peeking from time to time as if he expected a banshee to lurch forward into their seat. “Guess who won’t be able to sleep for _weeks_.”

He thought of the countless nights he’d endure Scorpius blaming muggles for coming up with the most ridiculous concepts that wizards started in the first place. “Definitely not me.

A doll animatronic appeared on their side, moving back and forth with an eerie smile on its face. It kind of reminded him of the stuffed doll Lily got for her 8th birthday, except its eyes were bulging and a huge, uncanny grin was plastered on its face.

“That is _not_ what a ghost looks like at all,” Scorpius muttered, still clinging at Albus for dear lives. “It looks more like the trolley witch got run over by the Hogwarts Express.”

Albus allowed himself to smile and glance at him. “And you say it’s me who’s darker than everyone else.”

Scorpius snorted. Even in the middle of being frightened, his best friend allowed himself to be sarcastic. “I just have a wide imagination, that’s all.”

The train of events that happened afterward felt more like flashes than anything else. A mummy wrapped hastily in tissue paper popped up beside them. Black cloaks floated over them like cheap dementors that might as well suck out sweets instead of souls. An all too realistic full-body skull was lying on a corner enough to make an inferi squirm out of embarrassment. At some point a creepy 80’s movie killer clown made a poor kid call out for his mum.

The train was full-packed with jumpscares and well-predicted scenes, and, for someone who has been subjected to unrelenting pranks and 12-hour horror movie marathons (James had fooled him into watching a romantic comedy movie only to have him endure families walking into what was more of a deathtrap than a house), well, it wasn’t much of a surprise to him. The scare never got less, but the shock does.

Suddenly, just as the show quieted down and riveted towards an eerie, unmistakable silence. Scorpius leaned forward for a whisper, close enough that sent the hairs behind his neck standing up. “That can’t be it, right?"

“Wait for it,” Albus replied, sensing one of the park’s prided jumpscare along the way. “Three...two…”

A loud scream. Shadows flickering on every corner. Lights flashing like daunted sirens. A girl that very much resembled a banshee hung limply above them, probably held together by wires and muggle technology."

Now, Albus wasn’t scared of too many things. Clowns made him really uncomfortable, and he didn’t really understand the notion of a bunch of three-year-old kids clapping whenever they perform at birthday parties. He still stuck his left leg on the blanket every night so that whatever ghastly creature that lived under his bed won’t snatch his foot and lead him to his ultimate demise. 

But when Scorpius unknowingly wrapped Albus from behind and pulled his tiny figure frantically into a hug, boy did it send his heart plummeting so bad it would make the Trolley Witch crawl back into the compartment in shame.

“Oops.” He mistakenly said, seemingly recovering from his frozen state. “That went a bit earlier than expected.”

The train skidded into a sudden halt. The wild adjustment between the dark, cramped tunnels to the vibrant unmistakable sunlight made both of them squint. Still, Scorpius wasn’t letting go, and Albus, in all honesty, found that he didn’t mind it at all.

“You think?” Scorpius asked disbelievingly. A whirring of machines, and suddenly the seatbelts automatically released themselves. Kids and parents scrambled away as the next set of passengers leaped forward excitedly to what could possibly be the time of their lives. 

Scorpius dislodged himself, mindlessly letting go of Albus. He probably didn’t expect himself to initiate the hug either, and was only taken by surprise other than anything else. “Where do we go next?"

Albus jumped off the seat as Scorpius followed suit. “I’m not allowing you to decide this time.”

“That can’t be fair.” The two walked alongside each other, exiting the ride as they headed towards attractions that leaned towards the safer side. “You’re the one who persuaded me to jump off a train. A moving, _magical_ train.”

Pushing past a group of people, Albus reached over his own drawstring bag and handed it to Scorpius. “You’re never going to let go of that, aren’t you?”

“Nope.” His gaze averted to the bag that Albus held outstretched for too long. “What?”

“Hold it for me, will you?” Albus gave his sincere, definitely try-not-to-laugh look before Scorpius eyed the bag playfully. Nevertheless, he still snatched it in mock fascination.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Scorpius swung his hands so fast his bag might as well ricochet 360 degrees into the air. “Shall I make tea for you too? How do you like your tea? Of course, as your trustworthy servant I should have known this. But still, one could not assume the peculiar tastes and….”

The angry rays of the sun shone over them, bright and unrelenting on a summer day. With throngs of busy families heading towards opposite directions, it was impossible not to get uncomfortable with sweat and stink and early morning.

So he did the only possible thought he could think of: remove the jacket Scorpius had insisted for him to wear earlier. He pried his jacket away from him and wrapped it behind its back, bringing the sleeves in front of his stomach and tying it into an eventful knot. 

“....But of course, I shall carry this bag with utmost fervor and protect it with all that I can—”

Just as he was about to secure the second, final knot, Scorpius stopped in his tracks, his trail of sentences fading away like stars before dawn.

“What?” His best friend was staring at him for far too long it was starting to concern him. “You look like a Bowtruckle stole your Pepper Imps.”

Scorpius could only squeak in return, mouthing something incomprehensible before strutting forward in vain to keep up with him. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Scorpius didn’t look like he was about to vomit in the middle of the park, thank goodness. No, it appeared that he had a sudden epiphany in the middle of a bright, summer day.

“Yep.” His voice was higher than usual. Albus didn't notice how his eyes darted everywhere, trying to find an excuse or something to blame on. “It’s the shoelaces. I mean they’re distracting, for a bit. And they can be a bit trippy. Not that I mind. I love shoes. They’re very...comfy. It’s just--yeah.”

Scorpius’s shoelaces were perfectly fine. In fact, they were tied very well and securely. At least, that’s what Albus thought as he glanced at his newly-bought sneakers Scorpius insisted Draco to buy.. He didn’t know what concerned Scorpius, but if he didn’t want to talk about it, Albus wouldn’t force him too.

“You were right. I should’ve tucked my jacket earlier just like you did.”

“I don’t mind,” Scorpius mumbled, staring at anywhere else except Albus. “You do have a way with Muggle fashion.”

◢✥◣

Scorpius insisted that they try a lot of rides afterward, dragging him along as if he was a fluffy ball of sunshine. They took turns picking rides and participating in booths, prior to previous events that included best friend’s very unusual tastes and definition of _thrill_. Scorpius had redeemed himself for the second time when he insisted that they ride Anchor’s Away, which was basically a machine-operated boat that swung both of them back and forth. Repeatedly. The first few swings were relatively gentle--the ones that followed weren’t. Boats don’t usually swing you so high they took your breath away.

“It feels like I’m eating a cloud,” Scorpius mused before shoving his strawberry flavored candy floss in his mouth. “What does cloud even taste like?”

He shrugged, quite unbothered and relaxed. Albus nibbled a bubblegum flavored candy floss as they strolled along the park’s side of the greenery. The pathway was lined with trees and fresh flowers and shrubbery, fresh and inviting like home. The leaves blocked parts of sunlight streaming past them, casting light rays in between gaps. 

“I don’t know.” Albus sighed, staring at what must have been their thousandth sweet for the day. “Why are you asking me?”

“Maybe it tastes like water.” Scorpius kicked a stone out of the way, relishing how every single one of them ricocheted towards a bush. “It should taste like water. You know, maybe we should mount our brooms one day and fly towards the clouds so that we can finally know the truth.”

“What about we _don’t_ do that.”

Ignoring him, Scorpius dived straight into his candy floss, the taste of strawberry and sugar melting in his mouth. “If this is what clouds taste like I’m not going to land my broom anytime soon.” 

“I hope that doesn’t entail me spending too many hours bribing you with sweets and stray kittens,” Albus replied. They neared a bridge that connected the other side of the pathway separated by a pond. “You have the fish food?”

Scorpius grabbed two vertical strips of bright, neon red packets from his jeans. “Yep, and I already have yours too. You know, in case you can’t distinguish right from left.”

Albus reached out his own pack, but not before Scorpius pried his hands away and raised it to a level he knew Albus couldn’t reach. “That was _one_ time!”

“One of too many times you almost shoved a quill into your mouth instead of the butterbeer on your right hand.” Scorpius made a face. “You know, as much as I find quills fascinating, revisions don’t usually end up with you losing half of your brain and mistakenly devouring your own feather-”

“Alright, you proved your point. Now stop before you end up like James.” Scorpius handed over his fish packet, grinning at him before ripping the package open. He started globs of fish food into the pond, with each plop emanating from the water every time fishes scrambled to get their little snack. 

At one point, Scorpius was too enamored by all the fishes that he tried feeding every single one of them. He started naming them throughout the process, picking brightly colored rainbow fishes and naming them _‘Albus’_ for no particular reason at all. 

Scorpius looked like he was cheering for his own Quidditch sports team. “Bob, don’t do that. No, that’s for Lexie--don’t!”

“Scorpius, you do realize that they can’t understand you, right?” 

He shushed him, looking like he was about to stick spellotape into his mouth. “Shh, they can hear you. Look at her, she’s swimming away. Come back!”

To save himself from the embarrassment of the blonde’s shrill screams, he threw one piece of ball-sized fish food into an isolated direction. The silver, stray fish lunged for it immediately, wagging its tail happily towards his direction.

Scorpius flashed a smile. “Who’s your favorite fish?”

He hesitated. “Do I really have to answer that?” 

“Yep.”

“Guess then.” He smirked, leaning towards the railing as he stared at the expectant fishes. It was simply impossible for Scorpius to guess his pick out of the pond--he didn’t _exactly_ have a favorite.

But Scorpius was thinking thoughtfully. Deeply, in fact, scrunching his eyebrows as if he was trying to find a lucky fish in the ocean. Finally, as if all the light of the world had suddenly flooded into him, he flashed an exuberant smile at Albus.

“ _That_ ,” Scorpius pointed at the silvery fish he fed from earlier. He faced Albus excitedly, his eyes beaming with hopefulness and glee and somewhere along the lines of pride. With his fish food on his left and a piece of strawberry floss on his mouth, Scorpius simply looked like a sun-kissed angel.

“Yeah,” Albus agreed, staring dumbly at Scorpius. He had no interest in the said fish whatsoever; although, if he was going to be honest, it reminded him of his completely platonic best friend. “Yeah, it is.”

Apparently, he was staring for far too long that he had missed the faint blush creeping on Scorpius’s cheeks. “Albus.” He waved the candy floss in front of his face. “Are you okay?”

“Wha—” Reality came crashing down on him like the Shrieking Shack. “Yeah. Yes, definitely. Sorry I—”

Scorpius’s attention was caught by a little boy behind him, no less than ten, dressed in cuffed jeans and a very baggy t-shirt. Albus turned, and sure enough, he caught the boy in the act of tossing a candy wrapper at the pond. 

“Hey!” Scorpius raised his voice to gain the kid’s attention, who’s whole body went stiff as if he had seen a basilisk. “Don’t throw that.”

Then, as if Godric Gryffindor himself entered his body and possessed him, Scorpius walked over in front of the boy. His features didn’t hold any malice or intimidation in them. In fact, it was very much the opposite that drew Albus into the scene.

“Don’t do that,” Scorpius repeated, gentler this time. “It’s not good for the fish. And the pond.”

The boy made a dubious face. Albus was slowly starting to find his attitude annoying. “I don’t think so. It’s just a candy wrapper.” 

“I don’t think so. The fish might think of the wrapper as food. Worse, they could all suffocate in it,” he explained. “So don’t do that again, okay?”

“But I wasn’t doing anything,” the kid said stubbornly, and by this point Albus was admiring Scorpius’s patience. He would have done it the Albus way; however, prior to their previous escapades, he didn’t think Scorpius would have a hands-down approval on that.

Scorpius only sighed, briefly surveying his surroundings in search of someone. “Where are your parents? Maybe they could buy you proper fish food.”

“They won’t.” The boy simply shrugged.

“You don’t know that.” a hopeful, uplifting tone laced his voice. “I’m sure they would-”

“They won’t,” he spluttered. His eyes were darting everywhere, seemingly avoiding any eye contact at all. “They can’t.”

The boy’s gaze settled to his right. Albus saw a woman leaning on the railing, which he assumed must be the kid’s mother. Her hair was tied in a really messy bun like she didn’t have enough time to tie it properly in the first place. The woman was cradling the crying baby on her arm while scrambling a baby bottle on her shoulder bag.

“What do you mean they can’t- _oh_.”

Then, as if all the anger had dissipated from him, Albus didn’t wait for any explanations. He kneeled in front of the boy so that he could properly meet his gaze. A whirlwind of sadness and guilt and dejection was evident in his eyes, and if he didn’t know further, he would have kicked the boy in the shin.

“Here.” Albus grabbed the kid’s hand that hung limply against his side. He took the opportunity of his outstretched palm. “Take this.”

The boy’s features turned into utter surprise as Albus handed over his own fish packet. His mouth formed into a wide O resembling one of the fishes, his gaze alternatively switching from Albus to the fish packet.

Albus decided to continue on further when the boy made no response. Who was he kidding? Kids don’t want you to talk to them as if they are, well, children. “This is what you feed the fish. Not candy wrapper, not plastics. They might think it’s food, so they could accidentally swallow it and, well, die. Then there won’t be many fishes in the pond. You don’t want that, do you?”

The boy shook his head vigorously, staring at Albus unblinkingly as if he was an owl.

“It’ll also be hard for them to breathe, and honestly, there won’t be any fish for healthy boys like you to eat if people continued doing that.” He ruffled the kid’s hair, hiding the surprise that he found in his voice. “Now, before we hand you this, will you promise Scorpius and I not to do that again?”

Nodding enthusiastically, a wide grin was slowly forming on the youngster’s face. “I promise.” The boy’s expression morphed into something akin to regret. “And, I’m sorry. I really am. I just--it won’t happen again.”

Albus smiled before finally standing up beside Scorpius. “Say hi to your mom for me.”

The boy almost jumped out of delight. “I will. Thank you so much, uhm--”

“Albus.”

“Right. Thank you, sir Albus! And you too, sir Scrupius!” The boy looked at them as if he was Santa giving out presents. Albus couldn’t help but snigger at how he struggled to say Scorpius’s name. The kid turned around, strutting happily before offering them another weird glance.

“You both have weird names,” the boy said, as if mouthing the words seemed foreign to him. Finally, he fled away, strutting casually towards his mother.

Albus suppressed a laugh. “Well, he was right about one thing.”

Now that the kid had gone and there was no one in sight, he felt like he was finally able to breathe. Talking to the kid was easier than expected, yet, it never meant it didn’t become less challenging. 

But the silence lasted for far too long that by then Scorpius _should_ have been rambling something. Instead, when Albus turned towards him, Scorpius had a strange look in his face, his chin mildly tilted upwards along with an amused glint in his eyes. 

Before Albus could ask if he was okay, Scorpius opened his mouth. “I didn’t think this day would come.”

Albus was starting to think that the muggle vendor had added something on his best friend’s very own candy floss. “Day would come….to what?”

“For you to actually talk to people and, you know, _socialize_ ,” Scorpius mouthed the word as if he was holding a pair of flobberworms in hand. 

He stared at him in mock surprise. “You’re not giving me enough credit. In case you hadn’t noticed, you actually made me pay twice for this day. _Twice_ , Scorpius. Using muggle currency."

“You know what I mean.” Scorpius nudged him before taking another light bite from his strawberry candy floss. 

“It’s just…” Without thinking, he instinctively leaned back against the bridge’s railing. “Mum didn’t get everything she wanted as a child, you know. Before she met dad. Even _when_ she already met my dad. Grandad had a low-paying job at the ministry. Grandma Weasley had to feed a bunch of children.” 

Scorpius only glanced at him, urging him to continue. “My point is...it’s easy to bring ourselves to hate people when they’ve done something wrong, like that boy. What we don’t realize, or what we try to ignore, is that some do things out of rash decisions. Out of desperate need. And mum taught us to, well, to look at both sides of the same coin. Not that it excuses their mistakes but they wouldn’t really be in that position if the world had shown a little bit of hope and encouragement to know what’s right and wrong and...why are you staring at me like that?”

Scorpius was leaning forwards on the railing, and it was only when Albus stopped and glanced towards him that he saw Scorpius casually resting his face against his palm. “You’re really kind, you know that?”

Out of all the things his best friend could have said, he was not expecting that. “And you’ve had this sudden revelation right now? Near a pond? at a theme park?”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Scorpius gave Albus _The Stare™_ that was usually reserved for Nifflers and Kneazles. 

“Nope. I still think you're the kindest person on Earth. You’re the one who walked over to the boy and almost held a placard that said _‘save the environment’_ in bold letters. I’d believe you if you said nargles fixed your tie this morning.”

Scorpius shrugged. “Well yeah, but that doesn’t make you any less kind.”

Albus could tell that he was being serious, and well, he didn’t know how to reply to that. He never saw himself as kind or brave in particular--that was his father’s role to accomplish. “Really?”

“Yep,” he said softly. “Don’t worry. I find your kindness undeniably charming.”

Then, as if he couldn’t have gone any redder, Scorpius offered him his own candy floss and struck it right in front of his face.

“Care to switch?”

◢✥◣

“And then James and I had a bet on which one of us can withhold a _scream_ on as the ride plummeted down—”

Lily was bouncing up and down in her seat as she rambled about loose, messy details of every single ride she had tried so far. A wide, intricate mat was strewn across the park’s picnic gardens, and it was only then that everyone was gathering hotdog sandwiches and fruit juices. James was completely sprawled out like a starfish, repeatedly tossing a stress ball on one hand pretending it was a snitch. His dad was pouring two glasses of lemon juice that threatened to spill on his lap as he stared open-mouthed at Ginny, whose dress currently matched the sunglasses that she wore under the heat of the sun.

And Albus, well, he was too busy raking his hand upon the blonde’s hair as Scorpius rested his head comfortably on his thigh. 

“You know, you didn’t have to put your phone on silent mode all the time.” Scorpius glanced up to meet his eyes, wearing that all too cheeky grin. “It would have taken us forever to get here if it wasn’t for the phone you borrowed from me.”

“You were the one convinced to try every ride out there,” he countered. “Besides, I thought you were keeping the phone?”

“Oh I am.” Scorpius wiggled his eyebrows. “Your taste in music _is_ amazing. I might actually ask father’s help to enchant it so that we can still listen to them at Hogwarts.”

For a while, Albus stopped tracing pretend constellations on Scorpius’s scalp and stared at him like he just suggested buying an Acromantula as a pet. “Scorpius Malfoy? Breaking the rules? Shocking.”

“It’s not like your dad didn’t approve of the mere suggestion of it. Remember when I bought it up at the Burrow?”

Albus sighed defeatedly. Attempting to win an argument with Scorpius was the vague equivalent of trying to tame a Mandrake. Difficult, but not impossible. “Yeah. Aunt Hermione even offered to help, and when she offers something, she sure as hell won’t back down.”

They heard a thud, followed by a light, inaudible grumble. Their attention was diverted to a frustrated Lily, who kept tugging and fiddling with her hair that was definitely a fiery, red mess. 

“Mum! My hair won’t cooperate with me.” She pulled her ponytail in a harsh manner after another failed attempt of a fishtail braid.

“Don’t worry!” Scorpius beamed, sitting up all too giddily as if he was reciting for Professor Flitwick’s class. “If you stop trying to strangle your hair then maybe I can help you make flower braids. Mum used to teach me those, so I think my hair weaving skills are not too bad.”

Lily's scrunched face dissolved immediately, followed by a light genuine smile. “I’m sure your mum is very proud of you.”

Scorpius, being the bright ball of sunshine as he is, didn’t take this as a pity cause. Instead, he crawled over to Lily and started asking for her comb and other basic hair essentials.

His little sister had grown fond of his best friend over the past years, and Scorpius’s week-long visit proved as much. Scorpius helped her with dating and girl advice, and in return, Lily introduced him to lighthearted Disney movies and cartoons. 

As if sensing his thoughts, James rolled continuously on the mat until he reached Albus’s side. “Little Lulu’s not so little anymore.” He stretched his hand to ruffle Albus’s hair. “Almost ten boys asked her out in a row already, and that’s just last week.”

His head whipped as fast as his older brother instinct kicked in. “What?”

“Chill,” James prepped his elbow to the ground, casually resting his cheek against his palm as if the matter was as simple as talking about the weather. “She’s handling them very well.”

He gave James his best dry, unimpressed look. “And by handling them you mean rejecting every single boy while pulling another prank in a fashionable, Gryffindor-ish manner?”

“Most of them, yes,” James chuckled. “The thing is, Lily could easily tell which boys take her seriously and those who ask girls out as a joke.”

The notion that a boy would try to date any woman for the sake of winning a bet was absurd for him. “Are you serious?”

It was too late when his mistake dawned on him. A sly smirk slowly formed on his brother’s face. “Sirius is my middle name.” 

Albus grabbed the nearest object by his side, which turned out to be his abandoned phone, and wordlessly threatened to whack James by the head. His brother only laughed, making no attempts of at least shielding his face.

“But really, there’s nothing for us to worry about. Not yet, at least. For all we know Lily’s already gathering a pack to campaign for women’s rights and gender equality at Hogwarts.”

He simply had to agree. “I’m really glad she has Scorpius.”

James, for the first time, didn’t snigger or hint something romantic at the mention of Scorpius’s name. He simply stared at both of them. “Me too.”

Albus’s gaze unknowingly averted to Scorpius, who was currently transfixed on weaving gentle, elaborate crowned, fishtail braids as Lily hummed another off-tuned song. Scorpius cheerfully sang alongside her as he picked stray wildflowers, placing them on Lily’s hair intricately as if he was carefully plotting his own revision schedule.

The moment was too pure, both for Lily and Scorpius, that Albus couldn’t let the opportunity slip away. Instead, he raised the phone in hand, briefly turning on its camera before snapping a photo of Scorpius pulling Lily’s hair into a braid while laughing at something she mumbled. Her sister had a faraway glance, and in the picture it was obvious that she was trying to stifle her own laugh to keep Scorpius’s handiwork intact. With white and yellow and a few lavender wildflowers poking through Lily’s hair, he couldn’t deny that her sister _was_ a Disney princess.

He wished moments like those stayed forever.

“They say that if you want to learn what someone fears losing, you have to watch what they photograph.”

James’s comment was so out of the blue that for a moment, Albus had forgotten about his phone at all. He puffed his cheeks and gave his brother a playful glare. “Who are you and what have you done to my brother?”

James returned an equally provocative grin. “He left his brain at Hogwarts. Goodluck trying to find him.”

Both of them chuckled before they lapsed into another comfortable silence. Shrieks of laughter and cries rang throughout the garden, along with the constant, distinct sounds of hushed conversations and exaggerated comments. Usually it would piss off Albus to no ends, especially when it reached the point where the noise got so loud he could barely make out a coherent sentence. 

But, for some reason, the park wasn’t so bad at all. Sure, it was filled with Muggles and intolerant children, but here they were away from fame. No reporters eying their every move as they tried to catch a story, nor photojournalists snapping a picture any chance they got. No, it was just the relaxed grin of his father’s face, the lighthearted chortle of his mum as she lavished on her large, floral hats she was finally allowed to wear, and James and Lily, well, still being James and Lily.

Or maybe it was just Scorpius that made everything a thousand times better.

Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t help but ponder on what James had said. For one, Albus never really owned an actual camera. The closest experience he had to photography was his phone, and even then he hadn’t got around the hang of it. Well, not since Scorpius’s visit. Phones were for summers, and because he spent most of his thriving days at Hogwarts, it never really mattered as much as it should. 

“Who are you afraid to lose?” Albus blurted out and it was too late when he realized how insensitive he must have sounded. This was James, for Merlin’s sake. They shouldn't be having this conversation in the middle of a park. 

Before he could apologize, however, James had already opened his mouth. “Oh, the usual. Mum. Dad. You and Lily. Teddy, too. Although I’d never admit that to him.” 

James had been upset about Teddy’s absence for the entirety of the vacation. As much as Teddy wanted to spend the summer with the Potters and Scorpius, he wouldn’t let the opportunity of a month-long work-related trip slip from his hands. Still, James was in a better mood right now than he had been anywhere else. He glanced again at Albus. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Who are you afraid to lose?”

With that his gaze instantly averted to the boy in front of him. Scorpius, who perked up at his dad’s offer of lemon juice and extra hotdog sandwiches, wearing that shine in his eyes and all too cheeky smile. He knew the answer then, and he thought James had figured it out too. He kicked away the thoughts of Delphi using the Cruciatus curse, of Scorpius screaming out his name, and basically every bad memory that distanced him away from Scorpius. 

He pushed them all at the back of his head, urging them to disappear, because that's how scared he was of losing Scorpius. He was scared of losing him to the point where even the thought of it seemed unimaginable, despite the possibility of it being real.

James didn’t push him for an answer. Instead...

“You love him, don’t you?”

Maybe it took one person to ask that question, loud and clear, for him to voice out what he felt. An affirmation that what he was feeling was _real_ , and that this wasn’t just a what-if, a mere illusion he had created in his head.

“Yes,” he whispered, because love was such a heavy word, and he was only fifteen. He knew there was more to love than meets the eye. But right now, he knew he loved Scorpius, and as far as he’s concerned that was how he felt. “Yes, I love him.”

A knowing silence. Then...“He loves you too, you know?”

It was another thing to think for himself about how Scorpius could return his feelings, but another one when someone else had confirmed it. Still, Albus wasn’t James. He wasn’t a Gryffindor. The idea of Scorpius loving Albus back was downright terrifying. Terrifying, because it was possible and it could, in fact, be real. Because the idea of walking into each other's heart and feeling like you're suddenly at home wasn’t impossible.

But, as much as he wanted to embrace that, the idea that it was all in his head and Scorpius might simply not return his feelings was what terrified him the most.

“I don’t think so.” Albus lied, although he didn’t really know who he was lying to. “He hasn’t said anything about it.”

It was James's turn to look at him smugly. “You know, for someone who has two functioning eyes, you really are blind. And daft. Do you really think Scorpius is the type of guy who’d throw fizzing fireworks in the Great Hall that said ‘I love Albus’ in bright, sparkly rainbows?”

“Okay, maybe not,” he agreed. But James was and would always be James. It was easy for him to assume things. “But how could you say that?”

For a moment, James averted his gaze from him, scanning the whole garden as if in deep thought. Finally, his eyes seemed to latch on something, and he smiled.

“You know how dad looks at mum?”

He followed his brother’s gaze, and sure enough, the old, usual frown his dad wore every time he got home from work was gone now. Instead, he saw his dad’s face crinkle in laughter at something his mum had said. It was as if all the problems of both Harry Potter and The Boy Who Lived dissipated, almost to point where his sandwich was slowly slipping out of his hands as he continued to ogle his mom.

Albus didn’t get James's point. “Yeah?”

‘That’s how Scorpius looks at you.”

◢✥◣

“So let me get this straight.”

Scorpius was leaning over a stanchion that threatened to give up under his weight. Lily was leaning over a bright red queuing ribbon that was on the verge of snapping, James was watching a kid splashing around, and Albus, as always, was confused.

He stared pointedly at Scorpius. “I left you and my sister alone for _five_ minutes—”

“Correction.” Scorpius held his hands up. “It was actually ten.”

“—And with that she was able to convince you to convince me that we tag along with them?”

“Well, I mean, yes.” Scorpius dropped his hands before anyone else got weirded out. “It’s just for _one_ ride.”

He looked over Scorpius’s shoulder to get a second glimpse of the ride, which got somehow utterly frustrating because his best friend just happened to have the height of a normal, average human being. Yet, as he watched a few, soaking wet people jumping off their faces with a manic grin in their faces, Albus had a feeling that these people might have lost half of their sanity--and soon enough those people were going to be them. “That one ride sounds like a hell of a thousand for me.”

“You can’t come to a Muggle _theme_ park without riding a rollercoaster, Al,” Lily beamed at him, snooping up at their conversation. “This one’s just a twist, because it has water and splashing and everything.” 

With that, his eyes briefly searched for something else. He pointed at another rollercoaster ride, which was smaller, less extreme, and infinitely better than Lily’s suggestion. It wasn’t as big as their last ride, and he could distantly make out wailing kids and frantic parents. Still, he’d prefer a kiddy coaster than submit to one of James’s reckless acts. “...Or we could go there?”

“Seriously?” James was evidently tapping his fingers against the rail. He tapped Albus sympathetically from the back, and even then, he didn’t look sympathetic at all. “Mate, I’m way too old for a kid’s ride. We all are.”

He felt betrayed. After that meaningful, Shakespearean conversation at the garden, James was back to being a Lockhart. “And the park’s heat is killing me. I need something to drench me beside dad’s own version of lemon water,” Lily made fake vomit expressions with her face, which only made her look like a drenched curp. 

Scorpius, as always, had already come up with something positive to say. “I think your dad’s desperate attempts at, in his own words, _‘living a healthy lifestyle’_ is not that bad.”

“Ahh...” James mused, staring at Scorpius as if he was victimized by Harry Potter himself. “He gave his healthy dad speech to you, didn’t he? He made me sit down for an hour just for that.”

“You’ve been here for a week. There’s been nothing but lemon water in the fridge for ages.” Lily sighed, rubbing her sweat-soaked face in frustration. “I can’t wait, for just once, to taste actual water in my system.”

It was Albus’s turn to talk. He was still _not_ over the fact that they were very much signing up for a death sentence. “Not from a makeshift rollercoaster river though, Lils.” 

“Relax, Al. It’s going to be fine.” James reassured, wearing that same, smug look in his face that wasn’t reassuring at all. In fact, Albus had been a victim of his brother’s unnecessary death-defying encounters that he might as well carve his own tombstone right there. “The seats are divided into two, so you can have Scorpius all you want.”

Just as he was about to open his mouth and prepare another counter-attack, James turned and called Lily, probably to initiate another bet as to who gets soaked the most on the ride. 

“Well, that’s a start,” Scorpius said. “You and James are getting considerably better.”

Albus looked at him as if he just casually suggested flinging themselves headfirst in the Great Lake. “Yesterday he almost pounced on me after I accidentally stepped into his room to borrow his earphones.”

A fond expression grazed his face. “You were talking to him a while ago.”

Oh, right. Of course he would notice that. Scorpius always had an eye for everything. Whether it’s his messily done tie or his crinkled robes, Scorpius can easily spot it, without fail. Maybe it was just the five years of friendship that you start to notice the little details, or the fact that Scorpius was staring at him for far too much, which in that case Albus had nothing to say.

“Yeah,” he said, close enough to a whisper. “Yeah, I was.”

If Scorpius had noticed his sudden shift of expression, he didn’t push anything. “Well, either way, he was right about one thing: you do prefer to ride other things.”

Albus almost choked on his saliva. He didn’t know what impressed him the most: James’s lack of subtleness, or Scorpius’s untainted innocence. Either way, he hoped Scorpius didn’t think too hard on that. 

By the time their conversation was finished the gates of the ride swung loose, prompting the next passengers to hop on the next ride, which, unfortunately, happened to be them.

“How Lily bribed you into riding this dreaded coaster is a miracle,” he muttered, making sure Scorpius heard him before hopping into the soaked ride. 

Real, genuine fear crept into him as they neared the coaster. It wasn’t the type of fear that screamed danger though, like the one that activated your flight or fight response. No, it was the feeling of exhilaration and adrenaline pumping into his veins that made him wonder how the hell he signed up for this. 

Maybe this was what it felt to be a Gryffindor. Still, he could sense Scorpius having the same reaction as him. James and Lily were in front of them, probably trying their hardest to hold their breaths, on a mission to accomplish whatever ridiculous ongoing bet they had in the past. 

The ride lurched forward, and by then he automatically clutched his seatbelt. Scorpius must have sensed his uneasiness for he leaned in towards him, close enough for James or Lily not to hear. “You’re going to be fine. Lily said most of the time people get back here in one piece.”

 _That_ information coming from Lily was somehow much worse. The coaster was rounding up a high slope now, and his lap was starting to get drenched from all the water sprinklers flashing around them. “What about the other times?” 

“It doesn’t help that you think about that right now, in a moving roller coaster, anticipating a sudden drop.” He joked, his voice nearing a shout as the ride sped up faster than before. “Seriously, if my calculations are correct, it’ll be just like riding a broom.”

He was doomed, then. Things didn’t turn out so well the last time he held a broom. He was about to voice out his thoughts when their coaster suddenly lurched to a sudden drop. 

It was as if the air had been sucked out of him. He swore that part of his soul threatened to leave his body without warning. He might as well have his soul sucked by a dementor, except that he could feel everything at once--the wind rushing through him, the blood pumping relentlessly through his veins, his heart beating so hard it might as well explode. The movement was all too sudden that it made him forget how to breathe.

He didn’t know if it was the panic that seized him, but Albus, terrified to the core, instinctively clutched Scorpius’s hand. 

The coaster slowed down for a bit as it rounded for another slope, which left him drenched in water, wearing what must have been the most incredulous look in his face.

“That can’t be it, right?” The shrieks of laughter were too loud that he couldn’t even hear himself. James and Lily were raising their hands, making the most cynical facial expressions and gestures Albus wouldn’t dare to know. And Scorpius, as usual, managed to look infuriatingly gorgeous despite plummeting down to what could possibly be their inevitable death.

Sure, he wasn’t being dramatic at all. “No, I think there’s another one.” Scorpius turned to look at Albus, grinning ear to ear at the sudden surge of thrill; nevertheless, he wasn’t letting go of his hand. In fact, he felt his heart lurch even further when Scorpius gave his hand a light squeeze before adjusting his grip so that their fingers slotted perfectly together.

“This _is_ amazing!” Scorpius threw his head back in laughter like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I was right! It feels like riding a broom!”

He was too enamored by his best friend’s happiness that for a moment, he too allowed himself to feel--the way Scorpius’s hand fit on his, the loud thumping in his chest that wasn’t so bad after all, and the wild, sense of exhilaration he had never felt for so long.

That is, until the coaster dropped from a steep fall and sent water splashing all over them.

If he hadn’t swallowed artificial water by then, he must have looked like a pitiful merman by now. After a while, the coaster halted to a sudden stop, while everyone, including James and Lily, who were cheering like the Chudley Cannons had once again aced the Olympics.

Both of them had gotten up from the ride, letting go of each other’s grip as fast as they held on in the first place. The severity of the ride was all too much that exiting the ride had been a blur to him. He remembered going down the stairs, James gushing excitedly about how he won a bet that Lily claimed to have never agreed on at all, and him trailing behind Scorpius, who was still in a daze. They were also subjected to a huge, Muggle body dryer, which, to James’s sentiment, was incredibly overpriced. 

Before he realized, he had parted ways with Lily. James might have given him a nudge on the way, far too hard that he almost stumbled over beside Scorpius. 

“That does _not_ abide by the laws of Physics at all.” 

“Physics?” He questioned, feeling his face light up to a grin at Scorpius’s geekiness. “Since when did you get interested in Science?”

“Over the summer. Dad took me to this really gigantic science museum before this,” Scorpius explained, slurring his words as he stared awestruck at the ride before them. “How Muggles came up with this idea of fun is simply unbelievable."

Albus simply shrugged. “Then again, so is magic.”

They stayed quiet for a while, their feet staying in one position despite the hustle and bustle behind them. Albus was too busy gazing up at the gigantic ride, the sudden fear and euphoria still vivid in his mind as though he was experiencing them all over again. He knew he should have been used to it by now, seeing to it that they have literally traveled from time and beyond. Yet, even then, the thrill never got boring, and the shock never got lesser. 

“You know, despite how much of a scaredy-cat we were,” Albus trailed off. “I quite liked that ride.” 

“I don’t know,” Scorpius quipped, without a care for the world. “I quite liked holding your hand more.”

It took Albus a second longer to realize what Scorpius was talking about. Shock slowly inched from his throat. Was hand holding a thing now? Has it always been a thing? Because Albus would very much prefer kissing him instead. 

“I don’t mind it,” he said, and it slowly dawned to him that maybe he should have mentally planned out his words. Holding your hand, I mean. I want to. Not that I’m forcing you to--it’s perfectly okay if you’re uncomfortable. Wait, but you said--nevermind. It’s stupid. I’m stupid. I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“Merlin.” Scorpius reached down and held his hand, once again slotting their fingers perfectly. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

“Better you than James,” Albus joked, trying very hard to ignore how fluttery he felt. Somehow, Scorpius’s hand felt right in his. He was suddenly aware of every callous Scorpius had in his ring finger, or how his own hand was a little bit too sweaty from excitement. Yet, despite these imperfections, Albus couldn’t bring himself to care. By then, anyone could have held his hand and it wouldn’t have been as perfect as Scorpius’s. 

They started walking together, hand-in-hand, all hints of embarrassment abandoned. “Where do we go next?”

“We could go for a carnival game,” Albus suggested. “Don’t get too disappointed if we don’t win, though. They’re usually rigged for the sake of gaining money.”

His face contorted into a visible frown. “That’s ridiculously unfair, but I do think we can prove them wrong.”

“You’re willing to spend a couple of British Pounds for what could possibly be a number of failed attempts?” 

Scorpius scratched his head, seemingly in deep thought. “It depends. What’s the prize?”

At that, Albus flicked his head at a huge, eye-catching stall decorated with brightly colored lights and neon colors. A series of small, assorted balloons were plastered against a wall, and on its side hung a multitude of stuffed toys that ranged from Disney characters he recognized from Lily’s movie marathons to teddy bears that stared deeply into his soul. 

The prize was tempting enough for Scorpius that, before he knew it, he found himself keeping up with Scorpius’s ridiculously long strides. Soon enough his feet were going to be the death of him.

“So,” Scorpius mused, his feet bouncing off excitedly as soon as they reached the center of the stall. “How does this work?”

Albus, who had no idea of what the balloons were for, silently grew thankful when a bubbly, middle-aged muggle woman took his place and answered for him. “It’s called balloon darts. Basically you throw darts and try to hit a balloon. If you’re lucky, one might correspond to a specific prize.”

Scorpius asked too many questions afterward, which the woman, who must have been one of the park’s employees, answered all too eagerly. The conversation had finally sprung into a halt when the lady, who had now grown very fond of Scorpius, handed fourteen pieces of darts. 

“What…am I supposed to do with this?” he asked, confused when Scorpius reached down and offered him the other seven darts. 

“Half for you and half for me,” Scorpius said as if it was the most casual thing in the world. 

“But I don’t think I can play.” He eyed the balloons hesitantly. “My aim’s probably as bad as my Quidditch skills.”

“Don’t undermine yourself. Your Quidditch skills are not _that_ bad.” Scorpius grinned. “Besides, a famous person once said: you’ll never know unless you try.”

It was his turn to smile. “And who, Mr. Malfoy, might be that famous person?”

Scorpius offered him a smug look before positioning himself for his first attempt. “It’s me. I am that famous person.” 

They alternatively threw their darts afterward, with Albus managing to pop a balloon on his first try. Scorpius kept urging him to pop more balloons, frantically pointing them out like a child going to a toy shop for the first time. The game was purely done with luck and chance, and so far luck hadn’t always been on their side. 

But there wasn’t any pressure in it, and judging by the keen, joyful expression on Scorpius’s face, he was happy. Albus was happy too, and somehow, that was all that mattered. 

“It’s your last dart,” Scorpius complained, squeezing his shoulder while simultaneously pointing at a stray balloon meters away from them. “You better make it worth it.”

“Exactly,” he deadpanned. For what was worth they could’ve just bought a fat-sized bear from a souvenir shop for Scorpius to cuddle all night. “It’s the last dart. Shouldn’t we be aiming at the center?”

“That’s exactly the spot where other people would aim. It’s part of the game’s strategy. Think about it, why do you think the occurrence of bringing home a prized toy is far lesser than what others made it seem to be?”

“That’s a very Slytherin thing for you to say.” he chuckled, finding his best friend’s determination relatively amusing. “Besides, you’re taking this way too seriously for a carnival game.”

“I watched you adopt a _Pygmy Puff_ for weeks despite having allergies-” 

“That’s completely irrelevant.” Albus turned, facing the stall instead of Scorpius. Unlike a broom, the last dart felt lighter in his hand. He gave it one last toss before mindlessly throwing the dart headfirst into the board, perfectly hitting Scorpius’s desired balloon with a faint _‘pop.’_

He glanced again at Scorpius, expecting a half-annoyed, half-disappointed face. What he found, however, was his wide-eyed, awestruck best friend grinning so hard his face might hurt just by looking at him.

“Albus.” Scorpius was shaking him at this point. “Albus we did it! _You_ did it!”

He finally followed Scorpius’s gaze, and fair enough, the Muggle employee was walking towards them with an unreadable expression. She carried a large, teddy bear in hand. 

“Congratulations,” she said, handing the teddy bear to Albus. “No one has ever won a teddy bear before.” 

“For real?” Scorpius took her bright nod as a confirmation. “Thank you! It was actually him who did it.”

He pointed towards Albus, who was suddenly all too flustered at the attention diverted towards him. “Well, I couldn’t have done it without you!”

The lady shrugged instead, walking towards the stall as another customer prepared for a go. “Either way, congratulations!” Just as she turned around and took a few steps forward, the lady stopped abruptly to cast her final glance. 

“By the way, you two would make a perfect couple.”

Albus certainly choked on his saliva that time, intentionally covering what must have been his red-streaked face with the teddy bear that held a bright red heart that said _‘I love you’_ in intricate cursive. Scorpius was staring at the ground with the same look in his face he had in third year when Albus casually asked what BDSM was (in his defense, it was James who first mentioned it to him).

Albus cleared his throat, breaking the silence that, for the first time, felt really uncomfortable. “Should we--should we go over there and tell her?”

Scorpius followed his gaze, staring at the lady who was now busy initiating a conversation to a young, excited blonde girl. 

“I don’t think so,” He didn’t need to glance at Scorpius to figure out what he was doing. He was probably cherry red from embarrassment right now, his hands searching for something to latch on, which just happened to be the strap of his drawstring bag. “Let people think what they want. It’s what we’re used to, anyway.”

“Okay.” Without thinking, Albus outstretched both of his hands so that the teddy bear was right in front of Scorpius. “Here, take it.”

Scorpius stared at him, then at the teddy bear, then back at him, and so on and so forth it almost lasted forever. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” It took him a swallow and a sigh before his mouth was able to say something coherent. “Yeah, I want you too.”

“Okay,” Scorpius said, almost in a whisper, before he lifted the teddy bear away from him as if it was his most prized possession. “He’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“The teddy bear’s a _he_ now?”

“Of course.” Scorpius scrunched his eyebrows in deep thought. “And he has the prettiest green eyes.”

He couldn’t figure out why Scorpius suddenly felt the need to say that, like he just had an epiphany when Albus had nothing but a rotten pile of Flobberworms. “I’m gonna name him Albus.”

Trust Scorpius to literally name everything after him. “First a fish, and now a teddy bear?” 

“It’s cute and fluffy,” Scorpius said, clutching the teddy bear to his chest. “It reminds me of you.”

Scorpius could have shooted darts directly into his heart by then and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

◢✥◣

  


“What did you expect a carousel was, Scorpius?”

Scorpius walked towards Albus’s left, then right, then left, and honestly, he was just pacing back and forth while the teddy bear dangled pitifully in his hand, which now threatened to graze the ground any second. And Albus, well, he was too busy relaxing at the parked bench facing the carousel. 

“I mean, it was majestic and everything. I love the light show and designs. I just thought that there’ll be more to it than stable rotating horses and carriages.” Scorpius stopped at once, glancing at Albus, unsure. “Did you like it?”

“I enjoyed it.” He heaved his right leg up into the bench to tie his worn-down shoes. “Except the part where I had to hold your huge teddy bear and the part where you were screaming the whole time.”

Scorpius, at that time, just happened to sit behind Albus’s back because he insisted on ‘sharing a horse.’ So when the ride jolted into a sudden movement, Scorpius jumped so hard he clung to Albus’s waist the whole time.

So yeah, he might have enjoyed that part for a bit.

Albus just finished tying his shoelaces into a knot before jumping up and grabbing Scorpius’s teddy bear before he got it stained with dirt and soil. 

Scorpius didn’t relent. Instead... “You need new sneakers.”

“And you need to try a new ride,” he countered. “It’s almost sunset, which means that any second now they’ll be having a fireworks display.”

“Fireworks? Like the exploding ones they sell at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes?”

Albus nodded. “Yeah, but the Muggle version.”

“Alright,” Scorpius agreed, reaching out to hold Albus’s hand once again. They fell into a series of comfortable exchanges of banter, with Scorpius having no idea where Albus was taking him. He didn’t know where he was going either, but he figured by now, the ride would be easy to spot too.

“Woah.” Was all Scorpius could say once they reached their supposed destination. “Is that…?”

“A Ferris Wheel,” Albus was gazing up too. The ride was gigantic and unmistakable, and from their view he suddenly felt small and unsure. “You can’t visit a theme park without riding one.” 

He squeezed Scorpius’s hand. “C’mon, we can ride just in time to see the fireworks from there.”

Dusk was almost settling, which meant that the line wasn’t very long. For the last time he was busy alternately resting one foot from another, his legs aching for anything to sit on. Then, to his relief, the two were ushered immediately to an empty cabin. 

Albus flopped down heavily into one side, placing the teddy bear between him and Scorpius’s seat. 

“Finally.” Albus leaned backward. The cabin didn’t have any windows, but they were supported with multiple poles as barriers as support. “My butt is aching for something to sit on.”

“You just sat a while ago.” Their cabin was slowly rising towards the top, and with it he could briefly make out throngs of families taking pictures and walking out of the park.

“To tie my shoes,” he shot back. “And that’s like, a millisecond short.”

“Drama queen.” Scorpius pulled a face before heaving himself up. He snatched something from his makeshift drawstring bag, which turned out to be the sweater he had worn earlier.

“Says the guy who’s already freezing to death.” For a moment, Scorpius was doing fine pulling his sleeves and navigating his way through wearing the sweater....until he couldn’t point out where his head and arms were supposed to go. 

“Help.” his voice was muffled and unclear. He looked like a mess of cobwebs and dangly spiders, his upper body unfashionably covered as his arms jotted from lanky, awkward angles. “I’m stuck.”

Albus only sighed, moving towards Scorpius who had given up in trying to get out of his own clothes. “You always get yourself stuck in everything.”

He readjusted Scorpius’s sweater so that his head correctly popped into the right hole. His hand grazed the soft strands of Scorpius’s hair at the moment, and Albus had to fight the urge to let his hand linger for a little longer, just a bit, especially now that it was ruffled and windswept and all too right. 

But first he had to make sure Scorpius’s sweater wasn’t clouding his vision, and that his best friend would finally manage to figure out his right and left sleeves.

“There. All good and cozy.” He smiled at Albus. “Can I borrow your phone?”

The question was all too sudden it caught him off guard. “Here? Right now? On a Ferris Wheel?”

“No, tomorrow, right when my dad picks me up,” Scorpius deadpanned. “Quick, hand it to me.”

“You’re not going to get over-excited again and accidentally toss the only phone I have a thousand feet in the air, are you?”

He eyed Albus with fake surprise. “Of course not! That’s just one time.” 

“One of too many times,” he said, returning the words Scorpius had thrown a while ago. Even then, he wordlessly handed his phone to Scorpius, who took it with too much enthusiasm the phone itself threatened to slip away from his hands. He furiously typed the password that Albus trusted him with before raising it in front of him.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a picture of you,” Scorpius cheered. “Say cheese!”

He instantly shielded his face with his arms, completely shying away from the camera. “Scorpius, no. Don’t you dare take a photo of me.”

Scorpius only gave him a smirk. “I already am.”

“I swear if you try and stick your thumb into that screen—”

“—I will if you give me that Albus-y smile.” Scorpius challenged, holding the screen in front of him.

He pried his arms away from his face, mustering the driest and most, as what Scorpius said, ‘Albus-y’ look. “Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, give me that phone right now—”

“I’d very much prefer if you call me Scorpius, thank you.” 

Scorpius laughed after that, and well, the sweet chuckle that resonated from him was too infectious that Albus couldn’t help but follow suit. Scorpius took the opportunity and snapped an unprompted picture of him.

“There,” Scorpius stared at the phone, satisfied with his quality-done work. “You look really happy.”

Albus frowned at that. “You mean I don’t always look happy?”

“No, you look like a grumpy mandrake sulking around a pot,” Scorpius said, impassive. “No really, you look happy here. Genuinely happy. And when you’re happy, you look very pretty.” Scorpius, unaware of the effect his words had on Albus, diverted his gaze at his phone and frowned. “Seriously, why does this keep turning off every second? And why did you create a passcode anyway?”

“It might have something to do with a certain incident involving James.”

Scorpius didn’t reply to that. Instead, he busied himself by browsing Albus’s gallery of photos, his thumb swiping from one photo to another. 

...Which would’ve been a lot less awkward if his entire gallery didn’t consist of pictures of Scorpius himself.

Albus didn’t mean to. He didn’t even know he was doing it. Scorpius’s first vacation at the Potters was all too exciting that he had to make sure to make the week worth it. He was a forgetful person, and really, he just didn’t want any memories slipping away from his hands. So, with all the courage he could master, he spent the vacation trying to snap pictures of Scorpius when he wasn’t looking at all.

From his side, he could see most of the pictures he took. There was Scorpius braiding Lily’s hair, Scorpius on his broom, grinning ear to ear at having been invited to his father’s miniature Quidditch game, Scorpius eating Treacle Tarts with bits of it coming out from his mouth, Scorpius with James, Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius…

_If you want to learn what someone fears losing, you have to watch what they photograph._

Oh.

For Albus, there were three possible ways to lose someone. First was death, which was inevitable. He figured Scorpius was more experienced by it, considering the death of his mum. He had also seen Craig die too. Another was by pushing people away. Albus remembered the library incident then. He almost lost Scorpius at that time, and sometimes the fear of not fitting in his best mate’s _‘new version inside his head’_ had yet to consume him.

Then there was the third. The last way to lose someone was by letting them slip away. By not seizing the opportunity and slowly realizing that you have, in fact, lost someone unknowingly. That you could have a person sit right beside you and not feel like you’re with them. 

He didn’t want to lose Scorpius by that. 

“Albus?” Scorpius gave him a concerned look, nudging him by the side to see if he would bulge. “Are you okay?”

 _I have feelings for you but if I don’t admit them, I could lose you; and if I did, I could lose you too._ “Yeah. Yeah I-”

Suddenly, with both of them unaware of what’s going on, a large boom echoed throughout the park. Both of them gazed up, only to find out that the fireworks display had started. Not only that, but their cabin was already at the highest peak of the Ferris wheel. 

Fiery, golden sparks whipped across the sky, fading in and out as fast as they had appeared. Faint traces of stars and constellations washed upon them as the final streaks of the sun landed on anything it could touch, temporarily dousing the world in the color of fire and beauty. 

Scorpius, who seemed to share the same train of thought like him, was astonished. “It’s beautiful.”

He glanced at Scorpius who, with his disheveled hair and mildly chapped lips, was staring in awe at the horizon as he did a while ago, during their first road trip. Lights and flickering explosions danced around Scorpius’s eyes, and somehow, with all the fireworks and the sunset and the stars, he still managed to look as beautiful as ever.

Scorpius averted his gaze towards him.

“Yeah,” he whispered dumbly. “Yeah, it is.”

It sank to him that he had been staring at Scorpius for too long when he caught Scorpius staring too, a confused and hopeful expression drawn in his face. He averted his gaze elsewhere, which turned out to be Scorpius’s hoodie hidden awkwardly from his back. It should’ve been drawn out, but with Scorpius’s struggle in wearing his sweater, well, it was certainly in the wrong position.

Without thinking, Albus placed the teddy bear into his lap before pulling himself closer to Scorpius. He drew his hand out, adjusting the hood of his best friend’s sweater so that it would bulge out in its right position. His fingers accidentally grazed Scorpius’s neck in the process, and at that moment both of them were fixated at each other.

At that point, he was done adjusting Scorpius’s hoodie that there was literally nothing to do but break away. But he didn’t want to, not yet, and judging by the look on Scorpius’s face they both shared the same thought. Albus gave himself the chance to let his fingers trail off so that his hand rested against Scorpius’s chest. 

That was when he realized, he didn’t have to be a Gryffindor to be brave. He didn’t have to be a Slytherin, or a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff. He just had to be Albus. 

He didn’t know what he was doing. He drew a handful of Scorpius’s sweater in his hand, abruptly pulling him close enough to cut the remaining distance between them and then-

And then Albus kissed him.

It was just a peck. He really didn’t know what had gotten into him, or what sweets he had digested for the millionth time. All he knew was that Scorpius’s lips felt soft and _right_. Scorpius wasn’t indignant, but he wasn’t doing anything either, so Albus snatched a few seconds for himself to make the kiss last.

When he pulled away, however, he saw Scorpius’s eyes flutter as he opened them. Soon enough he was wearing that wide-eyed expression again, and even Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, who always had something to say, was bobbing his mouth like a flustered goldfish.

Albus thought that the best way to end this was to Dissaparate. A sinking feeling suddenly overcame his stomach. His brain ran out of excuses on how to explain himself, each growing more feeble and useless by the second. _Sorry, I was meant to pull you into a hug but I actually kissed you instead. Sorry, I just find your lips really kissable. Sorry, because I was so afraid of losing you I thought-_

He focused on Scorpius’s expression again, only to find the boy...smiling. He was wearing that stupid soft smile, Albus swore he could’ve launched himself out of the Ferris Wheel right there and then.

Then, before Albus could react, it was Scorpius’s turn to pull him by his neck.

They were kissing. Properly, this time. He could hear the distant echoes of the fireworks beneath them, as if they too were celebrating. The wind ruffled their hair and streaked daggers against their skin, but at that moment it didn’t matter because he was kissing Scorpius and Scorpius was kissing him. Stars and constellations started to pan out in the night sky, and by then they were so high the world underneath them was so small, almost like miniature doll figurines and houses. 

He had never felt so alive.

Albus didn’t want to stop. So when his neck started to hurt and he pulled away, he found himself wanting more of it, every day, for the rest of their lives.

“So…” Scorpius’s features depicted hesitance, but there was a bit of courage and hope in there too, almost as if it took a lot of him to say something. He trailed his hand off Albus’s cheek, working it along the way so that his fingers were lightly grasping his chin. “I was waiting for you to do that.” 

“Yeah,” he whispered, the gravity of what just happened slowly sinking into him. “I was waiting for me too.”

“I didn’t want to push you.” Scorpius leaned closer to him. “And I didn’t want to push myself. I wanted to make sure of what I felt. And I wanted you to make sure of that too. I didn’t want us to be a what-if.”

“We didn’t have to wait five bloody years for that kiss, though.” Albus joked, a light smile creeping up his face.

“Well, no matter how long it took, it was definitely worth it.”

“For you, because you’re so tall and huge.” The mild throbbing of his neck finally dawned on him. “It’s unfair for those who are vertically-challenged.”

Scorpius raised an eyebrow. “Is that a new term now?” 

“Only if you want it.”

Albus was really, genuinely, extraordinarily happy. So when he noticed Scorpius’s expression turn skeptical, the sinking had come back as fast as it went away. “So...I guess this is a new thing between us. I mean-It’s good! I’m not complaining. It’s just—this is not a normal thing for best mates to do, right? Not that I don't want to be your friend—because I want to! I just thought—maybe—we could be more than that?”

“We can be whatever you want,” Albus said. “We can be whatever version you have inside of your head.”

“Oh.” Scorpius laced his arm across his waist. “Then I’d very much want that.”

Albus grinned at him. “But if we’re going to introduce ourselves to our parents, I think that the proper term we should use is boyfriends.”

“Boyfriend,” Scorpius repeated, his tongue trying to grasp the natural rhythm of it. The word itself seemed foreign to Albus, but it also felt right, and he couldn’t have asked for a better term. “You. Albus Potter. My best boyfriend.”

“And you’re mine.” 

Scorpius visibly swallowed, and his mouth gave a subtle involuntary twitch—a habit Albus recognized long enough as a sign of hesitance. For a while Scorpius was silent. Then...“I love this. I love you. I love you very much.”

A lump slowly inched in his throat. This wasn’t a dream anymore. He wasn’t going to wake up in the morning and let disappointment claw up in his chest. They were happening, and suddenly he was all too nervous. It was a different kind of bravery showing your love, and another kind admitting it. “I love you too. I’ve loved you for five years, and even then.”

Scorpius gave a shaky nod, as if he too, was finding this unreal. “I think both of us can collectively agree to never stop loving each other.”

Albus pulled away from him, grinning from ear to ear. “Yeah, I think we do.”

“Sorry to interrupt your utmost declaration of teenage love, but it’s the next passenger’s turn to ride your cabin.”

Both of them turned around, only to find an usher grinning at them with an amused expression in his face. He felt his cheeks heat up as both of them stood and flung themselves out of the cabin. Scorpius smiled apologetically at the man, who in return gave them a thumbs up.

◢✥◣

“What took you so long?”

Harry’s voice rang throughout the parking lot. He wasn’t enraged or anything though, which Albus took as a good sign. His father was just genuinely concerned, seeing to it that they had returned thirty minutes late than what they had all agreed to. Their phones had gone unanswered, partly because they were too busy doing stuff.

“You guys were not answering your phones, and any time I could’ve cast a corporeal Patronus just to find you.” Okay, in his defense, Albus was just too busy exploring Scorpius’s new version they had in their head

“Really?” Lily quipped. “You would do that?”

Albus drew a breath. With all the courage he had, he laced his fingers around Scorpius’s hand. Scorpius gave a light squeeze in return. He hoped, really hoped, that his dad got the point. 

“What were you doing, anyway?” Harry was frantically waving his hands. “Even James and Lily couldn’t find you. Wait, I don’t think James and Lily were trying to find you at all-”

His dad continued rambling for a torturous time. It was his mum who saw it. She didn’t even seem surprised at all. She offered both of them a light smile, one filled with pride and acceptance and everything Albus could’ve wanted. After that, however, she was too busy catching Harry’s gaze with a desperate look. 

“—And then I almost talked to the customer service, which was pretty embarrassing by the way but—Gin, stop stomping on my feet.”

Her mum gritted her teeth, obviously exasperated by her husband’s obliviousness. “I am not kicking your feet.”

“Yes you are, and I’m in the middle of explaining something to Albus and Scorpius-”

“—I think Scorpius and Albus are too focused on doing other things.”

His dad looked like a confused duck. He glanced at Ginny, then back at Albus and Scorpius. “What’s that supposed to—oh.”

His dad stared at their well-clasped hands for a good ten second before clearing his throat, lowering his head back in shame and embarrassment. It was dark, but Albus swore he could see the faint blush emanating from his father’s cheeks. “Well, I--I must say, I’m really proud of both of you, and Albus, I’d love you no matter what. Just—next time—please be safe—not that kind of safe, we’ll have a separate talk for that. Which may or may not be tomorrow morning. What I meant was-”

James shot up, finding it hard to keep his mouth shut. “Who made the first move?”

“James!” Ginny scolded. “That’s highly inappropriate to ask.”

“Sorry, mum!” James shouted, still grinning at both of them. “But the entirety of Hogwarts transactions depends on this.”

Albus thought his dad was about to have a heart attack on the spot. “You guys are betting on your brother’s love life all this time?”

James only shrugged. “Why not, right? I swear one time the whole school was impatient we could’ve just locked the two of them in a closet right there and then-”

“James!” His mum snatched his bag and fiddled with something that looked like coins. “But really, I must agree with James. Who made the first move?”

“Ginny!” Harry’s neck snapped so fast in his wife’s direction. “You’ve been betting on this too?” 

“Oh please,” Ginny deadpanned. “The whole Weasley-Potter clan was involved. Mum and Teddy laid 50 galleons on the table for Albus, while dad betted 40 on Scorpius.” 

His dad couldn’t comprehend it. “And somehow, after all this time, I was the only one who officially had no idea on what was going on?”

“It’s not just you,” Ginny muttered as she walked towards the car door. “There’s also Percy.”

He could hear his dad whisper something along the lines of _Draco-will-hear-about-this_ to _I-bet-Malfoy-doesn’t know_. Albus let themselves trail behind his family watching them bicker and rant about their unhealthy betting habits.

Scorpius leaned in for a whisper. “Should we tell them?”

“No.” Albus had a plan. “Let’s wait it out for a few days and watch them fight at no ends.” 

“Alright.” Albus was there, watching his family start an argument that would fuel the whole car ride. He just had his first kiss, his first declaration of love, and everything that followed afterward was equally amazing as well. His family was here, Scorpius was here, and he couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Maybe amusement parks weren't so bad after all.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you! Feedback is really helpful.


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